Sunday School: The Resurrection

As Pascha nears we will contemplate the Resurrection, the witness to it and the key arguments against it.

Our Holy Faith teaches us Jesus, suffered, died and rose in accordance with God’s plan. Christ’s entering into our suffering was half of the story. The story of man’s redemption didn’t end with Christ’ suffering and death, even if we choose to focus on His Death as the perfect sacrifice. It ends with Christ’s triumphal Resurrection, the conquering of death, His ascension and His reigning at the right hand of the Father and eventual return as ultimate Victor. This is what motivated the Apostles, disciples and early Christian martyrs to give everything – even to the point of dying to bring even us the full Gospel, the “good news” of His death and resurrection.

So while it’s true that seeing Jesus’ sufferings helps us bear our own, there’s the added boost that we know all this suffering is temporary. All will be made right some day and then we will have joy that we cannot even imagine now. “O Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?” – 1 Corinthians 15:55

God raised Christ up putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in it’s power. It was impossible because He was the righteous God-man and had given himself over in perfect love to God the Father. Not only did Jesus surrender his immortality and die on the cross, he rose with supreme authority over the whole realm of the dead. He burst out of the prison of death, breaking the chains and locks of all those held in captivity and carrying the keys of the prison with him.

Think of the triumphant icon of Christ standing over the gates of Hades and death, gripping Adam’s and Eve’s wrist in one hand while their other is outstretched in supplication. Look closely, you will see little keys and broken locks strewn about in the darkness around a prostate and bound Hades. Each of the keys is the key of death and Hades for each one of us. Hades is not destroyed – it is still there – but its power to bind people is gone. There are no chains, no locked doors. If only we raise our hands in supplication and longing for Jesus Christ, He is there to lift us from the grave. “…By death He trampled death…” we sing the hymn of victory!

Without the bodily resurrection, Christianity is a cruel hoax and our Faith is useless. Christ’s Holy Resurrection is a new experience of grace in the world. It was a completely, stunning, and shocking revelation.

In 1 Corinthians 15 we see Paul testifying to the truth of Christ’s Holy Resurrection which originates in the very same city where He was crucified. It wasn’t a strange cult that arose far away or later, it was preached at Pentecost, within 50 days, and lead to mass conversions. It’s not a later innovation by a cultic faction, it is core teaching from the very beginning of Christianity.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born…

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.. Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” – 1 Corinthians 15

From the Saints and Others

“The worst definition of salvation is a ‘reward after death’. It does almost no justice to the teaching of Scripture and trivializes the work of Christ. Our salvation has an eternal aspect – which is more a description of quality than quantity. Salvation is an existence that transcends time and is united to the timelessness of the Uncreated.”
– Pani Frederica Mathewes-Green

On Disputes

6 most common arguments against the Holy Resurrection:

1) Joseph of Arimathea boldly goes to Pilate to request the body. Later he changed his mind and moved the body. It would have been necessary for him to return to Pilate to get the body and then leave the grave clothes and 150 lbs of spices behind. Then Pilate had the guards stay to protect an empty tomb. In the end, when the apostles were widely proclaiming Christ’s Holy Resurrection, all they would need to do is produce the body.

2) Either Jewish or Roman authorities moved the body. Complete failure ever to produce the body or the location of the body that lays this theory to rest. Why keep up the pretense.. and why not produce the body later to refute the claims about His Resurrection?

3) Jesus didn’t really die, he lost consciousness and appeared to die. Hardly a serious argument. He was so mortally wounded that he would have died soon thereafter. In a cold tomb he revived himself? The Romans were experts and knowing when a crucified man was dead and would never had allowed a living man to be taken down. St. John himself saw blood and water flow from Christ’s side when pierced which is clear evidence of death.

4) The women at the tomb made a mistake. They went in the dark to the wrong tomb where they met the gardener who said the body wasn’t there, but they left before he could tell them they were in the wrong spot? This makes the women out to be silly dunces when in reality they were demonstrating enormous bravery. And then why would the gardener be there in the first place? They knew to go and saw first hand the open tomb and the burial clothes. The women were NOT expecting a Resurrection, no one did! Where is the gardener? and the body?

5) The grave was not even visited. They made up the Resurrection story as not a physical fact but a mythological act based on a deep contemplation of Christ’s teaching. It’s poetical mythologizing that results in the Gospel texts and other teachings. This is why there different stories from different people (the women, Apostles, etc.) with different perspectives.

6) “Cognitive Dissonance Theory” based on a hypothetical state in which groups or individuals fail to come to terms with reality and instead live in a fantasy that corresponds to their own deep longings. Advocates claim the disciples and Apostles wanted so desperately to believe in Jesus they would not or could not accept the truth, that Christ was dead. Then why would people give their lives for this?

Stories of Saints and Martyrs from the Week March 16

The Priest-Martyrs Trophimus and Thallus

They were born in Syria and were brothers by birth. They openly and freely preached Christ and denounced the folly of the Hellenes [Greeks] and Romans. The enraged pagans decided to have them stoned to death, but when they began hurling stones upon these two holy brothers, the stones reverted and struck the assailants and the brothers remained unharmed. Afterward they were both crucified. From their crosses the brothers taught and encouraged those Christians who stood sorrowfully around. After much agony they presented their souls to the Lord to Whom they remained faithful to the end. They suffered honorably in the year 300 A.D., in the city of Bofor.

March 17 – Reflection

Why are we here on earth? To show our love for God. To learn to love God more than sin. That by our inconsequential love, we may respond to the greater love of God. Only God’s love is a great love and our love is always inconsequential. God abundantly showed and shows His love for man both in Paradise and on earth. This brief earthly life is given to us as a school and as an examination to question ourselves as to whether we will respond with love to the great love of God. “Every day and every hour, proof of our love for God is required of us,” says St. Isaac the Syrian. God shows His love for us every day and every hour. Every day and every moment we stand positioned between God and sin. We have either to give our love to God and elevate ourselves among the angels or to choose sin and fall into the gloom of Hades. Alexis, the Man of God, loved God more than he loved his parents, his wife and riches. He spent seventeen years as a beggar far away from the home of his parents, and another seventeen years Alexis spent as an unknown and scorned in the house of his parents. He did this, all for the sake of the love of God. The merciful God responded love for love for these thirty-four years of suffering. He gave Alexis eternal life and joy among His angels in the heavens and glory on earth.